Amdavadis poured on to the streets of the Old city to catch a glimpse of their favourite god, Jagannath – locally known as ‘Ranchodrai’ – and his siblings Balbhadra and Subhadra, as their raths (chariots) were taken through the streets. The yatra which was held for the 141st time was officiated by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.
The leaders were the first ones to clean the path for the rath and then pulled the rath along with other devotees and temple staff amidst tight security outside the temple gates of Jamalpur’s Jagannath Temple. The yatra started at 7 am and is expected to end at around 10.30 PM.
The yatra will pass under Jamalpur Darwaza before heading to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Office and will slowly yet steadily snake through the walled city of Ahmedabad from there, where devotees will throng the streets to shower Jagannath with flowers and accept his prasad.
Apart from the raths different tableau on trucks will also participate in the yatra along with over hundreds of akhadas who will feature their best wrestlers and acrobats for the entertainment of the crowd. An excited crowd was also seen dancing to devotional songs, Bollywood songs and to dhols and nagadas along the route in veneration of lord Jagannath.
Heavy police patrol was seen throughout the route as over 20,000 police personnel were deployed to ensure the yatra went smoothly.
As an added security feature, a helium balloon with a high resolution security camera – procured from Israel – has also been put into action to monitor a 5 square km radius from a height of around 250 meters. A special control room has also been set up to keep a close watch on the movement of the chariots and the crowd through an extensive network of CCTV Cameras .
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